Tech College Strives to Avoid Merger
By Erin Stewart Deseret Morning News
Technical education leaders are making one last effort to stop the Southeast Applied Technology College from being swallowed up by neighboring — and often competing — College of Eastern of Utah.
Robert Brems, president of the 10-campus system of the Utah College of Applied Technology, pitched a plan to form a partnership between the two Price schools instead of merging the institution into one mega community college.
State Higher Education Commissioner Rich Kendell is not sold on the idea, however, saying he is not ready to recommend the plan to the Board of Regents. The Regents voted in October to merge the two schools.
“I have some reservations about it,” Kendell said Wednesday to the UCAT Board of Trustees. “I believe that the merged institution is the best model to serve that part of the state.”
The move towards either a merger or the newly proposed partnership comes after years of financial struggles by both schools, who often compete for students with duplicated programs.
CEU will eventually need to become a comprehensive community college to meet the area’s needs, Kendell said, and the merger now puts the school on that path.
“That’s their best chance for a good, viable future,” he said. “They’ll never survive as a traditional two-year college.”
But Brems said there is still a unique need for the Southeast Applied Technology College (SEATC), and he doesn’t want that trade education lost in the mix of a larger college.
Instead, Brems wants to test out a partnership until November and then reconsider if a merger is still needed to boost enrollments and eliminate redundancies.
“The concept of a merger has been controversial. It doesn’t feel good to a lot of people,” Brems said. “What we’re looking for is some middle ground to try these concepts on for size.”
As part of his plan, SEATC would retain its name and mission, but would relocate to the CEU Price campus. In addition, the SEATC campus president would also serve as vice president for workforce development at CEU, and both schools would open a spot on their board of trustees for a representative from the partner school.
The partnership would also identify and work to eliminate all duplicate positions and costs for software, travel and other expenditures. Both schools would also combine all business office functions including human resources, financial aid and information technology.
“The absolute best part of this is there’s time to see if this can work or not before we cement this thing,” said Miles Nelson, campus president of SEATC.
E-mail: estewart@desnews.com
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